In Norway, as in all other places, people have always made baskets from the materials from their surroundings. No one knows exactly how old these traditions are, but we know that weaving culture has travelled all over the world and we find similarities in traditions everywhere. 

The main strategy for making baskets in rural areas of Norway was to split the available material to make it pliable and soft enough to weave into baskets. There are several different techniques to make the baskets throughout the country, but the way of splitting the wood is quite similar all over Norway. The materials used are rods from different tree species, including birch, wild willow, hazel, juniper, and bird cherry, all measuring about two to four centimeters by the root.

In this course we will make a kipe – a traditional backpack used along the west coast of Norway. This backpack is designed for use in the steep hills in western Norway where they had to carry everything on their back! There are many varieties of this basket, from backpacks to small baskets for shopping and bigger ones for firewood. The structure of the basket is a wooden base and uprights in dry material. The weaving materials traditionally vary from place to place, but have to be fresh. The weaving material is split, and made pliable, by hand. We will learn two different ways of splitting to make materials for the baskets. In this class, we will use willow, but might experiment with other local materials if time permits. Note that a materials fee of approximately $100 will be due at the time of class. 

Required Tools

• Slojd Knife (Usually available for purchase in the school store)
• Handheld pruners

Optional Tools that Might be Helpful

• Leather for knee protection